Sufis and the Storyteller Hassan El Geretly

sufis

By Nile El Wardani

As I entered an ancient splendid building West il Balad and made my way up the endless spiral staircase of worn marble and ironworks to the top floor I found a bustling atmosphere of artists, singers, instrumental musicians and spectators spanning all the lands of Egypt. Forty young Egyptian singers, men and women, three rababa players from Upper Egypt and two tabla players readied themselves. Stick dancers stood by with stick in hand.

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Architect Ahmed Khalifa & Interior Designer Shereen Helmy

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By Nile El Wardani

Ahmed Khalifa (Architect) and Shereen Helmy (Interior Designer) are a young husband and wife team that is beating the odds and making a name for themselves in Egypt and soon internationally. The headquarters of their architectural firm KH Studio located in Heliopolis is in itself a testament of what they stand for; cutting edge, clean lines, natural robust yet alluring materials, sophisticated, state-of-the-art, functional, comfortable andaesthetically appealing. They have been inspired by renowned interior designers and architects such as Mies Van Der Rohe, Frank Lloyd Wright, Kelly Hoppen and Sir Norman Foster.

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The New Hermopolis—A Cultural Village

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By Nile El Wardani

The New Hermopolis is a cultural village, which is the vision and creation of the social alchemist Dr. Mervat Nasser. Coined by Nasser, social alchemy refers to transmutation of society through the Unity of Being as a fundamental principle that leads one to the desire of helping humanity to evolve into greater perfection.

The New Hermopolis aims to capitalize on the unique spiritual and cultural heritage of this ancient city towards the economic, spiritual and cultural revival of a largely neglected and impoverished fragile fragment of Egypt.

Alchemy, which originally comes from the Arabic word “Al Kimiya” (300 BC) literally means “the transmutation” was adopted by the Arabs from the Alexandrians and thence spread to Europe via Spain in 711 AD. Nasser was drawn to this spiritual location, once the ancient city of Hermopolis, located near Tuna El Gebel, Mallawi, El Minia.

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Artist El Azeem Ahmed

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By Nile El Wardani

A deeply philosophical artist, Al Zaeem Ahmed carried thousands of photographs, sketches and artifacts with him from Upper Egypt and the place of his birth when he displaced himself to Cairo. He felt the need to carry the moods, manners, tangible memories and feelings of his internal biosphere – his village.

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Hidden Grandeur

First published by Obelisque Magazine, Cairo, Egypt. Click on photo below to read article.  I would like to express my apologies for not including the names of Miss Nihal El Mogi and Miss Naela El Mogi – the daughters of the late General Salah El Mogi – along with Mr. Yousef El Mogi, son of General Salah El Mogi – in this article. Hidden Grandeur

Reflections on Work and Life in Egypt Today

Here in Egypt, despite the ongoing negative worldwide media reports, Egyptians continue to work, live, study and play.

At this moment I sit around a large rectangular table with twelve Egyptian managers (6 women, 6 men, age 35-55) who are engaged in their bi-weekly steering committee meeting at Ipsos Egypt, the country office of the 2nd largest research firm in the world. Ipsos, based in Paris, France, is located in 85 countries worldwide.

These twelve young Egyptian professionals are skilled, educated, empowered and committed to their work, families, company and country.

As the only American working with them, I can say without trepidation that they are amongst the top professionals I have had the pleasure of working with for the past 30 years of professional life.

Not only are they competent, precise, effective, professional and ethical in all their dealings, they are also supportive and kind to each other. There is no semblance of back-stabbing or negative competition. It is a real pleasure to labor with them and I feel grateful to find myself in such a healthy and positive work environment. They get the work done, creatively and professionally and they laugh and smile at the same time.

Ipsos Egypt offices are located on the Corniche El Nil in Maadi, Cairo. As we participate in our steering meeting, we see the Nile River below us and the green banks of river on the other side remind us each moment of the ageless dignity and life in this marvelous country. We can see the farmers working in their fields, the donkeys carrying their loads, the water buffalo turning around the water pumps and again we are reminded that Egyptians continue to work, taking care of their small piece of this magnificent country, whether they be a corporate manager or a farmer, despite the turmoil Egypt finds itself in.

There is something so very real and romantic about this scene….something that the world news media never begins to understand or capture or relay. There is hope. There is resolve. There is endless love for this land, this people, this country. Something I have not seen or felt, quite like this, in any other country.

I see this hope and resolve and tenacity in my fellow Egyptian Ipsos colleagues and I see it in the farmers toiling on the banks of the Nile, outside our Ipsos window.

No wonder that Egypt was rated 4th most positive economic outlook, amongst 25 countries worldwide in the Ipsos Global Advisor, for the next six months.

The Ipsos Global Economic Pulse (a monthly syndicated survey of 25 countries) welcomed the addition of a new country: Egypt in Jan. 2014. Egyptians reflect notably positive assessments of their national economy (64%), raising the global aggregate two points (39%) and the regional aggregate in the Middle East and Africa three points (54%). More than half (54%) of Egyptians rate the economy in their local area to be ‘good’ while six in ten (61%) expect it to be ‘stronger’ in the next six months. After three months without change, the average global economic assessment of national economies surveyed in 25 countries inches higher this month with the inclusion of Egypt in the global survey. When asked to consider the current economic situation in their country, 39% of global citizens rate it to be ‘good.’ Without Egypt, the figure remains unchanged at 37%.

Saudi Arabia (86%) is the country with the highest proportion of respondents rating their national economies to be ‘good,’ followed by Germany (75%), Sweden (72%), Egypt (64%), China (63%), and Australia (59%). On the other end of the spectrum, a small minority (5%) of those in Italy rate their national economies as ‘good’, followed by Spain (7%), France (8%), South Korea (17%) and Hungary (17%).

So lift up your heads Ipsos colleagues because we have something to smile about.

In Search of Oil and Sand – Egypt 1952

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On location 1952

IN SEARCH OF OIL AND SAND – An Egyptian Documentary Film Review

by Nile El Wardani

A 1952 feature film within a 2013 documentary film, In Search Of Oil & Sand, directed by Wael Omar and Philippe Dib, won the “Best Arab Directors” award at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival for successfully merging two historical timelines and creating synthesis between past, present, fact and fiction. Produced by Mid West Production and Sarakene Ltd., the film is guided by historian Mahmoud Sabit, an old world soul with a modern twist of savoir faire and political savvy, as he delivers both an historical detective story and political analysis of the late Egyptian Royal Family. Starring the Royals themselves, Oil and Sand (the film within) was completed just weeks before the 1952 coup d’etat that ushered in a new era for Egypt.

While Egypt’s current revolution is kept alive by today’s youth, Egyptian aristocrat and royal relation Mahmoud Sabit has unearthed never-before-seen footage and glimpses into Egypt’s second revolution, that of 1952, and the connections are nothing short of amazing. Sabit is determined to activate Egyptian historical memory and provide Egyptians with public ownership of their own history, as told by Egyptians, rather than foreigners.

Sabit is uniquely qualified to do this. The son of Adel Sabit, the cousin of Egypt’s King Farouk, and Frances Ramsden, an American Hollywood actress of the 1940s, Sabit Junior grew up in European exile after his father was wrongfully accused of spying on Egypt for the French in 1961. Until that time Adel Sabit was the publisher of the Egyptian Economic and Political Review. The first article published in the review was written by President Gamal Abdel Nasser.

Adel Sabit’s life was full of adventure, not unlike that portrayed in the fictional film he co-wrote. While young Mahmoud and his mother were able to leave Egypt in 1963 with their American passports, Adel Sabit had to escape Egyptian prosecution in the trunk of a car that drove him across the Libyan border. The family reunited in Europe. Mahmoud Sabit returned to Egypt in the 1990s and now resides in the 1923 Garden City mansion of his grandmother, Fatimah Hanem Chahin, the first cousin of Queen Nazly.

Within the glamorous remnants of the mansion Sabit discovered more than 15,000 photographs which document Egypt’s Belle Epoch from 1850 to 1956. Even more phenomenal, Sabit located the 8mm black and white rushes of the amateur film shot by Princess Faiza and her entourage, the Zohreya Set, an elite group of royals, aristocrats and diplomats.

Mahmoud Sabit’s parents socialized often with Princess Faiza and her debonair Ottoman husband Mohammed Ali Bulent Rauf (1911-1987). Rauf was the great-grandson of Ismail Pasha, khedive of Egypt from 1863 until 1879.  Born into the Ottoman elite of Istanbul, Rauf was competent in French, English, Arabic and Ottoman Turkish. He had studied English literature at Cornell and Hittite archaeology at Yale. In 1945 he married his second cousin Princess Faiza and they had settled into a privileged life together in Egypt.

This was an Egyptian milieu characterized by a cosmopolitan openness to other cultures and a tolerance of different faiths. They encapsulated privileged tastes and the refinement and sophistication of both the Egyptian and Ottoman cultures.

This was also a time when Egyptian studios was producing more films than Hollywood. The Zohreya Set very much enjoyed watching films together and it was only natural that the group should decide to entertain themselves by making their own film. Influenced by the politics of the times, Adel Sabit, Frances Ramsden and Bulent Rauf wrote their script.

More than a premonition of things to come, the film told the story of a fictitious Arab monarchy who is caught up in a coup d’etat and forced into exile and tries to regain control. Replete with a love story, Western spies and oil men and a lovely ball, filmed at Zoyreya Palace, within which the real elite of Egypt are featured, the finished film was burned by the director Rauf immediately following the real coup of 23 July 1952.

Adel Sabit served as Director of Photography. Princess Faiza played a princess of course and Princess Nevine Abbas Halim played a kidnapped American woman.  British and American embassy staff played oil men and spies, while local Bedouins played the rebels. A British diplomat in Cairo played the role of an official of his country which supported the ousted monarch.

What started out as plain fun became prophetic foreshadowing of the tumultuous times soon to come. This was particularly true in regard to the tall handsome American Bob Simpson. Befriended by Princess Faiza and her husband, Simpson was a regular member of the Zohreya Set.  Simpson served in Egypt as the special assistant to the US Ambassador to Egypt, Jefferson Caffery.  Ironically Simpson played the role of a US diplomat backing the fictitious coup. In an amazing twist of fate or a well thought out plan, Simpson was the actual person ordered by the American Embassy to organize the abdication of King Farouk following the coup, only six weeks following the completion of the film.

The rights and wrongs of that revolution or coup d’etat, its impact on the wider region and the geo-political world situation over the ensuing decades, are briefly touched upon in the film, by Mahmoud Sabit. The film is a glimpse into history, said Sabit, pointing out that King Farouk had lost trust in the British. The Abdeen Palace Incident of 1942 nearly resulted in a forced abdication of the King.  British troops and tanks surrounded the palace and forced a change of government for their own purposes. King Farouk capitulated but never forgave the British.

Sabit’s historic reflections are pointed, “When push came to shove Nasser and Co. thought that the British might interfere on Farouk’s side, and seemed to have made a deal with the British over the abandonment of the Sudan, to forestall, such an eventuality. It was one of the revolutionary accusations that Farouk was a British agent. It simply was not true.”  As a result the humiliation meted out to Farouk, and the actions of the Wafd Party in cooperating with the British and taking power, lost support for both the British and the Wafd among both civilians and, more importantly, the Egyptian military. Can such a history be repeated?

During Sabit’s search for the film footage, the working title became clear; In Search of Oil and Sand. What perhaps may never be clear are the answers to such questions as; If the monarchy had survived would Egypt have been able to make the transition to a democratic parliamentary political system? Were there external actors that may not have wanted such a future for Egypt? Did external actors play a role in the 1952 coup d’etat? What could have been their motives? Were the Royals as corrupt as their accusers portrayed them to be?

Sabit does not profess to have the answers, but he hopes that his film will provoke debate and raise questions about recent Egyptian history, particularly as seen through the prism of Egypt’s ongoing third revolution. A passionate researcher, Sabit went looking for anyone from the 1952 film that might still be living. Freakishly, Simpson had simply disappeared and there was no record of his death or whereabouts. Sabit poured over his mother’s letters and memoirs. In one entry she recounts Simpson’s drunken confession, to Princess Faiza and Bulent Rauf, that he was indeed an American CIA agent and felt so badly because “they had indeed been so kind to him.”

Sabit found the last living cast member, Princess Nevyne Abbas Halim residing in a well-worn villa in Alexandria, Egypt. In the documentary, she recounts with passion and humor the making of the film, the opulent times and the trauma of the ensuing coup. The documentary ends with images of the Royal family and friends taking a night fishing trip in Alexandria harbor on the eve of 22 July 1952. When they return to shore at dawn they are struck by the knowledge that army officers, including future President Gamal Abdel Nasser, have toppled King Farouk and they are no longer welcome in Egypt.

Sabit’s film In Seach of Oil & Sand deserves to be screened throughout the world as it weaves together history, politics and the creative human energy that makes for great story-telling, the cache of all human experience. As Egyptians fight every day for the successful future of their country, they and the world need to activate their understanding of what is shaping Egypt today. In Seach of Oil & Sand is a sumptuous and compelling place to begin.

Raising Public Awareness Through Televion

This Spring 2013 I created a new course at the American University in Cairo (School of Global Affairs and Public Policy)  called Raising Public Awareness through Television Production.  Here is a bit about the course followed by the LINKS to the Videos that the students produced under my leadership.Students were required to conduct in-depth research on their topic and create mind maps.  They were then required to conduct focus groups in the community and test their ideas and ultimately their scripts with their target audiences before filming. Their community partners were amazingly helpful.The students decided to address the following issues:
1.) Domestic Violence, 2.) Trash and 3.) Sexual Harassment.

Students talk about awareness-raising and this class gives them a chance to go beyond talk and develop the research, writing, and film-making skills to make concrete progress in that direction. My students have been very enthusiastic about this experiential learning opportunity and I hope that AUC will be able to repeat it in the years to come. We already have request from UNDP to explore working on Regional women issues and empowerment by collaborating to have PSAs on common issues amongst Arab women to be aired on Satellite Channels.

A course such as this is an excellent way for AUC students from different disciplines to work together and at the same time to work within their communities and give real service to their country during this transitional period.  I can see this course expanding to include working partnerships between students in other disciplines including environment, women’s studies, public health, urban planning, development studies, water, etc.

After decades of keeping Egyptians in the dark about issues that affect their every day life, it is time that Egyptians are given pertinent information that will help the country develop and the people become educated and aware of their problems and more  importantly their solutions. PSAs televised on Egyptian TV are one instrument that can fulfill this promise.

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. – Margaret Meade

I am very proud of my PPAD 570 students. They have worked very hard. I admire them and I expect great things from them in the future. I know they will continue to serve their communities and their countries. They have proven to be committed, intelligent, sensitive, tolerant, hardworking, thoughtful and I believe some of them will be Egypt’s future leaders.  FYI – they are all young women.  Below are the PSAs that they produce under my teaching and leadership.

The PSAs are all in Arabic and are made for Egyptian Audiences.  (We are working on English Subtitles for international audiences).

I would love to hear your comments and reactions.

Many thanks for your consideration.
Please share the PSAs with others.
Sincerely,
Nile El Wardani, MPH, PhD

Here are the links:  Please GIVE US FEEDBACK!

Domestic Violence:

http://youtu.be/pRmA2olerAY

http://youtu.be/DKAbAQ7luX0

Trash:

http://youtu.be/L40B5Tvst-Q

http://youtu.be/qfeCsZH-dzQ

http://youtu.be/8H_B8FpRnJE

http://youtu.be/zIJtjq6H-qg

Sexual Harassment : Group 1

http://youtu.be/pq5f0xz846A

http://youtu.be/n7O3i_RhR9k

Dr. Nile Regina El Wardani, MPH, PhD
Adjunct Professor in Public Policy
Public Policy and Administration Department
School of Global Affairs and Public Policy
American University in Cairo
Cairo, Egypt
www.nileelwardani.org